Design Thinking and Innovation-Basic

Syllabus: Introduction to Creative Process, Stages of Creative Process, Preparation Stage

of Creative Process, Incubation Stage of Creative Process, Illumination Stage of Creative
Process, Evaluation Stage of Creative Process, Implementation Stage of Creative Process,
Creative Thinking Principles: New ideas are composed of old elements., Creative
Thinking Principles: Not all new ideas are on a par, Creative Thinking Principles:
Creativity is Enhanced by the Ability to Detect Connections between Ideas, Steps to
Enhance Creative Thinking, Introduction to Biomimicking, Importance of Biomimicking,
Examples of Product designed from Biomimicking, Biomimicking for Engineering, Case
Studies of Biomimicry.
Preparation Stage
❑ An idea can come from anywhere. It feels like it happens
spontaneously, but that’s actually very rarely the case.
❑ Most of the time, ideas come from consumption. The
more you consume, the more inspiration you can draw
from.
❑ The preparation stage involves gathering as much
information as you can, immersing yourself in
something, and preparing an environment where ideas
can grow.
Incubation Stage
❑ If the Preparation Stage is about working, the Incubation Stage is
about taking the time.
❑ And with this stage, there is no knowing how long it will take.
❑ The Incubation Stage might happen consciously, when you are
working on a project, or actively brainstorming about something in
particular.
❑ But it can also be subconscious. You might have been unwittingly
churning ideas in your head until not realizing it until you reach the
third stage of the creative process
Illumination Stage
❑ The Illumination Stage is the The “eureka moment" of the
creative process, when your incubation has come to fruition.
❑ Once you’ve turned over and pieced together different
concepts, you eventually come to a breakthrough.
❑ It often comes as an epiphany, and somehow everything
finally makes sense.
Evaluation Stage
❑ The Evaluation Stage is the reasoning stage.
❑ You’ve come up with an idea or a solution, so you ask yourself:
• Is it worth pursuing?
• Is it novel enough, or has it been done too many times before?
• Are there necessary changes I could make?
• What do my superiors or colleagues think of the idea?
❑ Many people tend to struggle in this stage because it requires a lot of
self-reflection, honesty, even blunt self-criticism.
Verification stage
❑ This is the final stage of the creative process. It’s when the hard
work happens.
❑ Your creative product might be a physical object, an advertising
campaign, a song, a novel, an architectural design—any item or
object that you set out to create, propelled by that initial idea that
popped into your head.
❑ Now, you finalize your design, bring your idea to life, and share it
with the world.
Principle one : New ideas are composed of old
elements.
Principle two : Not all new ideas are on a par.
Principle three : Creativity is enhanced by the ability
to detect connections between ideas.
Principle one : New ideas are composed of old elements
Where do new ideas come from?
❑ The simple answer is that new ideas are actually old ones rearranged
in a new way.
❑ So there is a sense in which it is true that "there is nothing new under
the sun."
❑ This applies not just to the creation of concepts or theories but also the
launching of new fashion or cultural trends.
Consider the idea of a mobile phone.
This idea is of course the combination
of the idea of wireless information
transmission and the idea of a
telephone.
 Principle two : Not all new ideas are on a par

❑ Creativity is not simply a matter of coming up with new ideas.

❑ The kind of creativity that is valued is the ability to come up with new and useful ideas,
ideas that serve an important need or creates a new trend that makes an impact.
❑ Creativity might be divided into cognitive and artistic creativity. Artistic creativity
consists in the creation of artwork and expressing one's ideas and emotions through
various forms of art.
❑ Cognitive creativity is a matter of coming up with solutions to practical or theoretical
problems. This includes for example creating a new scientific theory, or lauching a new
commercial product.
Principle three : Creativity is enhanced by the ability to detect
connections between ideas.
❑ Our store of ideas provides the ingredients to generate new ones, but it is important to remember
that useful ideas might come from unexpected sources.
❑ As a concrete example, consider the so-called "fastskin" swimsuits that was introduced by the
company Speedo around 1996. One of the key consideration in designing a swimsuit for athletes
is to reduce the total amount of drag over the surface of the swimsuit.
❑ The company's researchers noticed that sharks are able to move very fast in water in part because
of V-shaped ridges. Researchers designed swimwear fabric emulating sharkskin that produced
less drag and turbulence.
❑ At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, 28 of 33 Olympic Gold Medal winners wore this type of
swimsuit, testifying to its success.
❑ So if we want to be creative, we must be ready to explore
connections between different areas.
❑ Creative people are usually people who read widely, who
have a great sense of curiosity, and are often willing to
explore topics which do not bring about immediate benefits.
 Steps to Enhance Creative Thinking
Five ways to improve your own creative thinking and design thinking skills.
1: Create your own “Three Ifs”
❑ (1) What would happen if I change it (the object/ system/ social relationship,
etc)?
❑ (2) What would I change or improve about this object if I wanted to use it in 10
years?
❑ (3) What would I do if I had a one-million-dollar investment to improve it?
These questions can become powerful tools that can help you to think differently. It is
important to exercise these skills by repeatedly using the “three ifs” formula (or
designing your own set of questions) about all sorts of things. And many new ideas
will pop up.
2: Practice dreaming
❑ The greatest paradox is that creative thinking is not necessarily the
product of IQ or enlightenment via the proverbial apple falling on your
head.
❑ It is a matter of regularly training your imagination, practicing your
powers of observation and dreaming, big or small.
❑ This will help you get into the habit of making space in your mind for
dreaming – essential for creative thinking and innovation.
3: Make time for cohesive creative thinking
❑ The next rule of creative thinking is very simple: allocate time – it might be an
hour per day or per week – in which to exercise creative thinking about
something specific.
4: Learn to pitch your ideas
❑ There is simple truth in the fact that Steve Jobs of Apple was great at
exploring and explaining innovations based on existing products –
laptops, cell phones, music players. He didn’t invent those products, but
he made them better and he was great at explaining why his version was
superior to other competing goods.
❑ One of the most important innovation skills is the ability to present a
very short and clear description of a new idea (two to three sentences)
and to make a short presentation.
5: Bounce ideas off others
❑ A final important asset to add to your innovation
skillset, is the ability to be a valuable team player,
capable of bouncing ideas to the next level.
❑ For some young people this is very natural, while for
others it does not come so easily to be a team player.
❑ But it is never too late to train yourself in this mode of
interacting.
Few More Tips
❑ Try mind-mapping
❑ Think laterally
❑ Word association
❑ Watch interviews and read biographies
❑ Start creative writing
❑ Socialize
Sample Assignment: Combine any three ideas of the
existing ideas and create a new Idea of any existing
problem that you think need to be resolved
 Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Biomimicking
❑ If the history of planet Earth was compressed into 1 year, humans would appear in the
last 15 minutes of it. Out of those 15 minutes, most recent industrial progress would
occur within 1 minute.
❑ An interesting method to solve these problems may lie in biomimetics, which uses
nature as the ultimate model, standard, and advisor.
❑ Biomimicry is the science of applying nature-inspired designs in human engineering
and invention to solve human problems.
❑ By designing and producing materials, architecture, and systems that are based on
biological materials and processes, we work to strike a balance with nature—to live in
harmony with Mother Earth and not to continue producing global problems.
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
How Biomimicking Can Help Us?
• Making effective structures can benefit greatly if they could be made of materials with

nature’s characteristics of self-healing, self-replication, reconfigurability, chemical

balance, durability, and multifunctionality.

• Learning how to process biologically inspired materials can make our choices greater and
improve our ability to create recyclable materials that would help greatly in
protecting the environment.
• Mimicking nature’s materials will also benefit humans in many other ways, including the
development of more lifelike prosthetics as well as artificial hips, teeth, and structural
support of bones.
Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 36
 Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Case Studies of Biomimicking

Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
Whale Wind Turbines
❑ Scientists were inspired by a unique series of
bumps called tubercles on the fins of humpback
whales that enable the 45-foot animal to better
maneuver when capturing food.
❑ Tubercles affect the flow of air over the blade
generating a vortex on each side of a specific
tubercle that prevents air flow from separating
and stalling.

WhalePower tubercle technology, a company developing a range of tubercle

technology products, with a range of blade applications, including wind
turbines, hydroelectric turbines, irrigation pumps, ventilation pumps.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Box Fish and the Bionic Car

❑ In 2005, inspired by the great structural
strength and low mass of the boxfish,
Mercedes Benz developed the Bionic
Car, which reported to reduce drag,
have great rigidity, low weight and a
significantly lower fuel consumption
than traditional cars.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

The Lotus Effect and Superhydrophobicity

Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Mimicking Spider Silk (Spintex Engineering):

❑ Spintex Engineering has finally cracked the
spider’s code and has developed a solution that
mimics a spider spinnerets’ ability to spin fibre
at room temperature without harsh chemicals,
from a liquid gel.
❑ By mimicking how a spider spins silk at room
temperature, Spintex creates high
performance, sustainable textiles that are
1,000 times more efficient than an equivalent
synthetic fibre.
 Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
Water Collecting Beetle
To survive in the arid wilderness of southwestern Africa, the Namib Desert beetle
harvests water from thin air. The blueberry-size, long-legged insect leans its bumpy body
into the wind, letting droplets of fog accumulate and drip down its wing case into its
mouth.
❑ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
replicated this structure with glass and plastic.
❑ This enabled them to collect minute amounts of
water just like the beetle’s back, but also
provided them with the grounding for other
applications aside from fog harvesting in a
desert. For example, building cooling devices,
or use in cleaning up toxic spills.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Climbing pads from Geckos feet

• Geckos climb vertically with the help of
very tiny hair-like strands on the bottom of
their feet called setae.
• Due to weak attraction between molecules,
a sticking force is created between the
setae and the walls.
• Climbing pads, mimicking this method,
capable of supporting human weight are
now in the making.

▪ Inspired features:
▪ Adhesive tiles covered with sawtooth-
shaped polymer structures the width of a
human hair(100mm).
▪ Connection of pads through degressive
springs that lose stiffness when stretched.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Kingfisher and the Shinkansen

❑ Kingfishers are masters in travelling
between the mediums of air water, with
very little splash.
❑ Just like the Kingfisher, the Shinkansen
bullet train is equipped with a long beak-
shaped nose.
❑ This significantly reduces the amount of
noise the train makes, but also uses 15 per
cent less electricity, and travels 10 per cent
faster than before.
 Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

➢ The lotus effect, otherwise known as superhydrophobicity, is the effect

seen on the leaves of the Lotus flower, where water is not able to wet the
surface and simply rolls off.
➢ This high repellence is due to the nanostructure of the plane, where micro-
protrusions coated in waxy hydrophobic materials repel the water.
➢ This is also a self-cleaning mechanism as dirt particles also stick to the
water molecule.
➢ Copying this process, CeNano developed nanotol - a hydrophobic (water-
repelling), lipophobic (fat-repelling), and oleophobic (oil-repelling)
sealant that can be sprayed to substances to create their own
superhydrophobicity.
➢ The applications of these are huge, and amazingly satisfying to watch.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
Sharkskin and the Swimsuit
❑ By examining the biological processes
of shark skin, NASA scientists were
able to copy the microscopic patterns
of dentricles to create a ‘riblets’ film.
❑ Comparable to shark skin dentricles,
this film reduces drag and deters
microorganisms (such as algae)
attaching to the surface.
Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata

Geometric screen systems inspired from flowers

This building screen system opens and closes in
response to sunlight (like a flower). The geometry
and elasticity of the flowers played a major role in
the study.
Inspired features:
❑ The wooden lattices are aesthetic and functional
at the same time.
❑ Geometry allows the open and close based on the
sun’s position which reduces the energy use and
increases comfort of the user.
❑ Thermobimetal material expands more quickly in
heat to block the sun’s extreme heat.
Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Examples: A Shark Skin Coat

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 50

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
❑ Sharkskin-inspired swimsuits received a lot of media attention during the 2008
Summer Olympics when the spotlight was shining on Michael Phelps.
❑ Seen under an electron microscope, sharkskin is made up of countless
overlapping scales called dermal denticles (or "little skin teeth").
❑ The denticles have grooves running down their length in alignment with water
flow.
❑ These grooves disrupt the formation of eddies, or turbulent swirls of slower
water, making the water pass by faster.
❑ The rough shape also discourages parasitic growth such as algae and barnacles.
Scientists have been able to replicate dermal denticles in swimsuits.
Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 51
Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Lotus Paint: Water Repelling Paint

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 52

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ The flower's micro-rough surface naturally repels dust and dirt particles,
keeping its petals sparkling clean.
❑ If you've ever looked at a lotus leaf under a microscope, you've seen a sea of tiny
nail-like protuberances that can fend off specks of dust.
❑ When water rolls over a lotus leaf, it collects anything on the surface, leaving a
clean leaf behind.
❑ A German company, Ispo, spent four years researching this phenomenon and
has developed a paint with similar properties.
❑ The micro-rough surface of the paint pushes away dust and dirt, diminishing the
need to wash the outside of a house.
Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 53
Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Black bug: Water Collector

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 54

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ The small black bug lives in a harsh, dry desert environment and is able to
survive thanks to the unique design of its shell.
❑ The Stenocara's back is covered in small, smooth bumps that serve as
collection points for condensed water or fog.
❑ The entire shell is covered in a slick, Teflon-like wax and is channelled so that
condensed water from morning fog is funnelled into the beetle's mouth.
❑ It's brilliant in its simplicity.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 55

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Researchers at MIT have been able to build on a

concept inspired by the Stenocara's shell and first
described by Oxford University's Andrew Parker.
❑ They have crafted a material that collects water
from the air more efficiently than existing
designs.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 56

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Examples: Cockroach Legs Inspire
Robotic Hand's Grip Action

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 57

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Using previous research that mimicked the way a

cockroach runs, a team of scientists moved that
research on to a hand that can grasp a variety of
objects, and may one day even be able to grasp
items like keys.
❑ It could even lead to new hands for amputees that
are as dexterous as their original hand.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 58

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Artificial Leaf

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 59

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ The advanced solar cell is about the size of a poker card, and mimics
photosynthesis.
❑ This is different from the solar cells we're used to, which convert sunlight
into energy directly.
❑ Instead, this process utilizes water as well, just as typical leaves work.
❑ Made from silicon, electronics and catalysts, the solar cell is placed in a
gallon of water in bright sunlight where it can go to work splitting water
into hydrogen and oxygen and storing the gasses in a fuel cell.
Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 60
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Solar panels and the spiralling phyllotaxy arrangement

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 61

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Phyllotaxy refers to the arrangement of leaves on a plant

stem in a manner that allows for maximum collection of
sunlight.
❑ Due to this arrangement, photosynthesis by a plant exhibits a
very high efficiency of 95%.
❑ When photovoltaic cells, the constituent elements of solar
panels, are arranged in a similar pattern, they not only
occupy much less space, but also exhibit increased
efficiency. Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 62
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Colour without Pigment and Electronic Displays

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 63

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Morpho butterflies and peacocks are known for their beautiful and shimmering
colours.
❑ However, this myriad of colours is not generated by pigments; rather, the
selective reflection of incident light enables them to generate colours that do
not exist in the first place.
❑ This has been leveraged by tech giant Qualcomm to develop more energy-
efficient displays that generate colours by reflecting specific wavelengths from
each pixel.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 64

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Stanford researchers have managed to create SNAG, the

Stereotyped Nature-Inspired Aerial Grasper, which can fly like a
quadcopter but land like a peregrine falcon.

❑ SNAG is not your average drone but a robotic bird that can grasp branches of various forms and textures
with its 3D-printed legs, motors for muscles, and fishing line for tendons.
❑ The end goal is to conserve battery while filming or surveying an area by perching instead of hovering all
the time.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 65

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Moth Eyes Inspired The Camera Lens

❑ Camera lenses have optical elements inside of them
which each have coatings designed to cut down on
glare and reflections.
❑ Instead of reflecting light, they were designed to hold
the light for a piece of film, a digital sensor or any
other sort of photographic material.

According to Wired, camera lenses and film are designed to mimic the way
that a moth’s eyes work–specifically with light holding properties in mind.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 66

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Biomimicry in “Robotics”
❑ Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, have
developed a new type of robotic and interplanetary
probe that is inspired by snakes called a Snakebot.
❑ The lead Snakebot engineer Gary Haith says, “A Snakebot
could navigate over rough, steep terrain where a

Snakebots wheeled robotic rover would likely get stuck or topple”.

❑ They will be able to slither into the cracks of the planet’s
surface, dig into the loose soil of Mars and burrow down
to depths that other robotic probes can’t get to.
Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 67
Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

BatBot
❑ Bats have wings that can change shape
during flight, with shoulders, legs, elbows,
and wrists all moving at once.
❑ Thus, having the most complex flying
mechanisms in animals, they have long
captured the imaginations of scientists and
engineers with their unrivalled agility.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 68

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑Bat Bot — a self-contained robotic bat with soft,

articulated wings, developed by researchers at Caltech
and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(UIUC).
❑This robot design will help build safer and more efficient
flying robots, and also give more insight into the way
bats fly.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 69

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Water Striders
❑ Walking on water sounds impossible, but here are
Water striders, little insects that spend their
existence skating around on the surface of lakes,
ponds, and streams, relying on surface tension to
keep them dry.

Interestingly, water striders are able to jump just as high on the water as they are on land, suggesting that the
technique that they use is unique to their environment since most other insects that can jump on the water
are way more efficient jumping on land.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 70

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

The insect has attracted the

attention of many researchers due
to their power-efficient and agile
water surface locomotion. Water
striders have thus inspired many
Robots such as STRIDE II.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 71

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

BionicANTs

BionicANTs are small

robot ants inspired by
real ants.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 72

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Like their natural role models, the BionicANTs

work together under clear rules.
❑ They communicate with each other and coordinate
their actions and movements among each other.
❑ The artificial ants thus demonstrate how
autonomous individual components can solve a
complex task together, working as an overall
networked system.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 73

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

OctoBot
Inspired by Octopus and made
from silicone gels of varying
stiffness, the ‘Octobot’ is powered
by a chemical reaction that pushes
gas through chambers in its
rubbery legs.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 74

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Efficient Color Electronic Screens
(Inspired by the Wing of a Butterfly)
❑ A butterfly’s wings are one of nature’s most
exceptional materials.
❑ These incredibly complex and advanced structures
are able to reflect light in such a way that enables
specific wavelengths to interfere with each other
and thus create intensely vivid colours.

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 75

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

❑ Careful investigation of this process provided engineers from

Qualcomm with inspiration for new technology.
❑ By mimicking this effect, they’ve been able to develop a way
to produce coloured electronic screens that are extremely
efficient and can be viewed under any light conditions and
various angles

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 76

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Examples: Heliotrope Follows the Movements of the Sun

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 77

 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Examples: Tree-Climbing Robot Mimics Inch Worms

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 78

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
Mimicking Spider Silk: Spintex Engineering

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 79

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 80

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 81

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 82

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 83

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 84

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 85

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 86

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 87

Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

Prepared by Dr. Chandan Adhikari 88

Institute of Engineering & Management Kolkata
End of Module-2